Environmental Abiotic and Nematode Biotic Factors Affecting Virulence of Corn Cyst Nematode, Heterodera zeae on Corn in Egypt

Ahmed El-Ismail

Plant Pathology Department, Nematology Laboratory, National Research Center, 12622, Cairo, Egypt.

Received | January 22, 2025; Accepted | June 30, 2025; Published | September 11, 2025

*Correspondence | Ahmed El- Ismail, Plant Pathology Department, Nematology Laboratory, National Research Center, 12622, Cairo, Egypt; Email: [email protected]

Citation | El-Ismail, A., 2025. Environmental abiotic and nematode biotic factors affecting virulence of corn cyst nematode, Heterodera zeae on corn in Egypt. Pakistan Journal of Nematology, 43(2): 154-157.

DOI | https://dx.doi.org/10.17582/journal.pjn/2025/43.2.154.157

Keywords | Hererodera zeae, Soil textures, Inoculation levels, Inocula storage conditions, Types of inocula, Virulence, Egypt

Copyright: 2025 by the authors. Licensee ResearchersLinks Ltd, England, UK.

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Introduction

In Egypt, the corn cyst nematode, Hetetodera zeae has been identified as a significant nematode affecting maize plants, as highlighted by Aboul-Eid and Ghorab (1981), Ismail (1985, 2009), Abadir (1986), Moussa et al. (1988) and Ismail et al. (1993). Successful establishment of a plant parasitic nematode species is depending on how much the environmental a biotic factors and nematode biotic conditions are favoring its survival. Some methods are discussed as follows:

An environmental abiotic factor

Behavior of H. zeae as influenced with soil textures: Movement, development and distribution of the nematode were observed in the best soil textures. Upadhyay et al. (1972), Whitney and Doney (1973), Santo and Bolander (1979), Anand and Weather (1985), Walia (1987) and Todd and Pearson (1988) stated that the virulence of related nematode species, including Hetetodera rostochiensis, H. schachtii, H. cajani and H. glycines were more favourable in the light clay soil than in the heavy clay soil. Lighter soils were observed to be more favorable for H. zeae build-up and attributed to good aeration and porosity in these soil types (Srivastava and Sethi,1984a). Studies conducted by Egyptian researchers, showed that H. zeae vitality increased in light soil than heavy soil (Ismail, 1985; Abadir, 1986; Ismail and Khair, 2014a) which help free vitality the nematode infection. The same findings are consistent with earlier research by Wallace (1963); Upadhyay et al. (1972); Taha and Kassab (1979) and Walia (1987). Specifically, lighter soils i.e., sandy clay loam and sandy loam have been identified as more conducive environments for corn plant damages by the nematode infection compared to other soil types, (Anand and Wrather, 1985; Ismail and Khair, 2014a; Abd- Elgawad, 2024).

Nematode biotic factors

Heterodere zeae behavior as influenced with nematode inoculation levels and response of the corn growth: Biotic factors such as nematode inoculation levels are useful in evaluating the virulence potential of a nematode species (Ismail, 2023). The relationship between inoculation levels of other cyst nematode species and host plant growth, nematode build-up was deeply studied (Rao and Peachy, 1965) on H. rostochiensis, Gill and Swarup (1973) on H. avenae, Sharma and Sethi (1975) on H. cajani, Maas and Brinkman (1977) on H. graminicola and Griffin (1988) on H. schachtii). Specifically, 100 or 500 cysts of H. zeae plant affected corn height; while levels of 100, 250, 500, or 1000 cysts/plant adversely decreased the fresh and dry weights (Ghorab, 1978). Applying 100 juveniles of H. zeae kg of soil for the Pusa isolate and 1000 juveniles per kilogram for other isolate significantly decreased corn growth in compared to check plants (Srivastava and Sethi, 1984b). In 1985, Ismail declared that rate of cyst increase for corn cyst nematode was achieved at 200 cysts/plant. Abadir (1986) reported that Tanta isolate of H. zeae inoculated with 1000 eggs and juveniles/plant was most virulence producing the highest number of cysts but, at using of 2000 eggs and juveniles/plant it was surpassed by the Belbais isolate. Plant growth reduction caused by the nematode could be attributed to the modification of plant physiological function i.e. photosynthesis, transpiration and mineral uptake following infection as reported by Heald and Jenkins (1964), Wallace (1963), Ismail (1985) and Ismail and Khair (2014b).

Viability, infectivity and virulence of H. zeae as influenced with cysts storage conditions

Inocula storage conditions are important as biotic factors influencing on the nematode’s behavior. The potato cyst nematode, H. rostochiensis cysts and juveniles were viable after 5 years under dry storage conditions (Ellenby, 1955, 1968) in compared to H. schachti because the juveniles of the sugerbeet cyst nematode lose water more than H. rostochiensis juveniles, while these conditions are not fovorable to H. avenea cysts (Winslow, 1955). Active juveniles and cysts of H. glycines were extracted from soil balls which taken from soybean seed sources after 5-8 months from collecting time (Epps, 1969). Soybean cyst nematode juveniles survived 7-19 months under irrigation conditions and up to 38 months in dry soil (Slack et al., 1972). Low-temperature (5 or 10°C) was more favourable for the vitality of H. avenea juveniles (Davis and Fisher, 1976). Respecting to H. zeae, there is a scarcity of literature on this particular factor. Krusberg and Sardanelli (1989) observed that eggs or active second stage juveniles inside cysts of H. zeae still vital under field conditions. Recovered after fifty-one months from naturally infested field soil stored moist under laboratory conditions some good cysts were extracted but after over two hundred days of storage, active larvae emerged from the recovered cysts and many white females developed in bioassays of these cysts. Ismail and Khair (2014c) observed that H. zeae had higher reproduction rates on inoculated maize plants with fresh cysts followed by which stayed for twelve months under low temperature 5°C. Also, the lowest final population and build-up was found when using H. zeae cysts stored under laboratory conditions. Consequently, the reduction in plant growth was more significant when fresh cysts were used compared to other storage conditions. Cooling conditions was better for H. zeae cysts than drying state (Krusberg and Sardanelli, 1989).

Influence of various inocula kinds on virulence of corn cyst nematode

Also, vorious types of inocula have been studied by some researchers. Gill and Swarup (1973) observed that freshly hatched second-stage juveniles of H. avenae was very virulence than cysts done. H. rostochiensis populations were significantly increased in case the plants which inoculated with cysts than the eggs and this regarding to the variation in the cyst contents of eggs and juveniles (Den Ouden, 1963). Contrarily, Ismail and Khair (2014d) found that the further development of H. zeae was high at using eggs as inocula compared with cysts or juveniles. This method was found to be more virulent on corn growth and this respecting to the presence of eggshell which protect the juveniles from the adverse external conditions during the inoculation process. On the other hand, using juveniles as the inoculum might expose them to harmful conditions during this process. When cysts were used as the inoculum, the variability in their content and delaying of juveniles’ emergence may decrease their virulence (Ismail and Khair, 2014d).

Conclusions and Recommendations

Soil textures as an environmental abiotic factor along with certain nematode biotic factors i.e. inoculation levels, inoculum storage conditions and inoculum source types are directly affecting on virulence of corn cyst nematode. Some methods were discussed to manage the nematode.

Novelty Statement

The work declares the important environmental abiotic and nematode biotic factors affecting the population behavior of corn cyst nematode.

Conflict of interest

The author has declared no conflict of interest.

Generative AI or AI-assisted Technology Statement

The author declares that no Genrative AI was used in the creation of this manuscript.

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